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Archeological excavations show that Micronesians lived on the island in the past, though no details are yet known.[2] The Tokugawa Shogunate dispatched an expedition in 1675 and made a map of the island.[2] It remained uninhabited until May 1830.[3]

Two shipwrecked sailors who were picked up by Beechey in 1827 suggested that the island would make a good stopover station for whalers due to natural springs found on the island.

The first settlement on the island was established in May 1830 by 36-year-old Massachusetts native Nathaniel Savory along with four other whites and 20 Hawaiian men and women from Oahu. Descendants of Nathaniel Savory continue to live on the island to this day.[3]

Commodore Perry's flagshipSusquehanna anchored for 3 days in Chichijima's harbor on June 15, 1853, on the way to his historic visit to Tokyo Bay to open up the country to western trade. Perry also laid claim to the island for the United States for a coaling station for steamships, appointing Nathaniel Savory as an official agent of the US Navy and formed a governing council with Savory as the leader. On behalf of the US government, Perry "purchased" 50 acres (200,000 m2) from Savory.[5]

On January 17, 1862, a Tokugawa Shogunate ship entered a harbor at Chichijima and officially proclaimed Japanese sovereignty over the Ogasawara Islands.[2] Japanese immigrants were introduced from Hachijōjima under the direction of the Tokugawa Shogunate. Forty members of the Savory colony were allowed to stay on the island.[3] Following the Meiji restoration, a group of 37 Japanese colonists arrived on the island under the sponsorship of the Japanese Home Ministry in March 1876. The island was officially incorporated into Tokyo Metropolis on October 28, 1880. Emperor Hirohito made an official visit to the island in 1927, aboard the battleship Yamashiro.

A small naval base had been established on Chichijima in 1914. The island was the primary site of long range Japanese radio stations during World War II, as well as being the central base of supply and communication between Japan and the Bonin Islands.[6] As behooved this status it had the heaviest garrison in the Nanpo Shoto. According to one source: "At the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor an Army force of about 3,700-3,800 men garrisoned Chichi Jima. In addition, about 1,200 naval personnel manned the Chichi Jima Naval Base, a small seaplane base, the radio and weather station, and various gunboat, subchaser, and minesweeping units."[7][8] The garrison also included a heavy artillery fortress regiment,[9] it was a frequent target of US attacks. A young George H. W. Bush was shot down while on one of these raids. In 1944, all of the 6,886 civilian inhabitants were ordered to evacuate from the Ogasawara islands. Japanese troops and resources from Chichijima were used in reinforcing the strategic point of Iwo Jima before the historic battle that took place there from February 19 to March 24, 1945. The island also served as a major point for Japanese radio relay communication and surveillance operations in the Pacific, with two radio stations atop its two mountains being the primary goal of multiple bombing attempts by the US Navy.[3]

Chichijima was also the subject of a book by James Bradley entitled Flyboys: A True Story of Courage, a factual account of the lives of a group of young World War II pilots, including George H. W. Bush. The book tells the story of United States Navypilots who bombed the island's two radio stations, and details the stories of the US pilots who were captured, tortured, executed, and in some cases, partially eaten in February 1945.[3]

The island was never captured, and at the end of World War II, some 25,000 troops in the island chain surrendered. Thirty Japanese soldiers were court-martialled for class "B" war crimes, primarily in connection with the Chichijima incident and four officers (Major Matoba, General Tachibana, Admiral Mori, and Captain Yoshii) were found guilty and hanged. All enlisted men and Probationary Medical Officer Tadashi Teraki were released within 8 years.[10]

At least two US citizens of Japanese descent served in the Japanese military on Chichijima during the war, including Nobuaki "Warren" Iwatake, a Japanese-American from Hawaii who was drafted into the Japanese Imperial Army while living with his family back in Hiroshima.[3]

The United States maintained the former Japanese naval base and attached seaplane base after the war.[citation needed]

On English maps from the early 19th century, the island chain was known as the Bonin Islands. The name Bonin comes from a French cartographer's corruption of the old Japanese word 'munin', which means 'no man', and the English translated it to "No mans land" islands.[3]

The climate of Chichijima is on the boundary between a tropical savanna climate (KöppenAw), a tropical rainforest climate (Köppen Af), and a humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa). Temperatures are warm to hot and humid all year round, and have never fallen below 9.2 °C (48.6 °F) or risen above 34.1 °C (93.4 °F)[15] owing to the warm currents from the North Pacific gyre that surround the island. Rainfall is, however, less heavy than in most parts of mainland Japan, since the island is too far south to be influenced by the Aleutian Low and too far from mainland Asia to receive monsoonal rainfall or orographic precipitation on the equatorward side of the Siberian High. Occasionally, very heavy cyclonic rain falls, as on 7 November 1997, when the island received its record daily rainfall of 348 mm (13.7 in) and monthly rainfall of 603.5 mm (23.8 in).

From 1968, the Maritime Self-Defense Force has operated the Chichijima Naval Base, along with the associated Chichijima Airfield, the latter including a heliport originally built during the American occupation, as well as seaplane facilities.

Possibly as a result of the introduction of nonindigenous animals, at least three species of birds became extinct: the Bonin nankeen night heron, the Bonin grosbeak (a finch), and the Bonin thrush. The island was the only known home of the thrush and probably the finch, although the heron was found on Nakōdojima (also "Nakoudo-" or, erroneously, "Nakondo-"), as well. The existence of the birds was documented by von Kittlitz in 1828, and five stuffed thrushes are in European museums.

The Bonin wood-pigeon died out in the late 19th century, apparently as the result of the introduction of alien mammals. The species is known to have existed only on Chichijima and another island, Nakōdo-jima.

The inhabitants of the island traditionally have caught and consumed green turtles as a source of protein. Local restaurants serve turtle soup and sashimi in dishes. In the early 20th century, some 1000 turtles were captured per year and the population of turtles decreased.[23] Today in Chichijima, only one fisherman is allowed to catch turtles and the number taken is restricted to at most 135 per season.[23]

The Fisheries Agency and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government operate a conservation facility on the edge of Futami Harbor.[24] Eggs are carefully planted in the shore and infant turtles are raised at the facility until they have reached a certain size, at which point they are released into the wild with an identification tag. Today, the number of green turtles has been stabilized and is increasing slowly.[23]

The original settlers were of Western and Polynesian origin. Their descendants are now known as okibei and have Western and Japanese names; they were required to have the latter since World War II. As of 2012[update] most residents were of Yamato Japanese who came to the island after Japan took back control from the US in the 1970s.[25]